Trevor Noah regrets his controversial African American jokes:"I may not be American, but I am black"

Trevor Noah is a comedic genius. 

Thanks to his quick wit and on point social commentary the world will finally get to see Trevor in action as the new host of the Daily Show when the show debuts on September 28 on Comedy Central. 

In a new interview with GQ titled "Is Trevor Noah ready for the Daily Show?" the comedian finally discusses his controversial tweets that were found buried in his Twitter feed. Check out of some the tweets in question

Ouch!

Trevor told GQ:

“You show me half my jokes from even two years ago, three years ago—I hate them. Because you see, like, a young version of yourself. You’re like, “Why would you say that? You idiot! That makes no sense.” Or, “That’s just stupid.” Or, “Ahh, I can’t believe I said that about a woman.” You should not like what you did back then, because that shows that you’ve grown. If you’re still doing it, that’s a scarier place to be.”

Trevor seemed to be pouring his heart out in the interview and spilling the tea on a number of other regrets. Namely the joke towards African Americans on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno back in 2012.

He says "I look back on it and I go, ‘Had I known, I would've done it differently.' Because when you come from a different place, you don't realize the minefield you're walking into"

"I do know this: I continued doing the Leno bit after I'd done it on Leno. But the way I did it slash would do it today is completely different. I've now learned how to be emotionally aware of how people may use your joke in a negative way. And that's something that you're always trying to navigate in comedy. You know, Dave Chappelle talked about it as well—if you're not careful, someone can use your words to hurt somebody else."

He says he particularly regrets one joke in that routine that was addressed specifically to African-Americans. "I said: ‘You're not African, but we play along.' " The problem was, "I had given some people ammunition to oppress those who had already been oppressed." Now he feels that he'd taken the wrong side. "I hadn't fully understood the African-American experience. I hadn't read the books; I hadn't met the people; I hadn't traveled the country."

When the reporter asked Trevor if he felt like he had to learn how to talk about race relations in America better, he answered "I may not be American, but I am black. It's not like I had to learn how to be black." 

What do you think of Trevor's comments? Was he out of line?